Sunday, May 28, 2017

Our Trion Creator streamer @Seshatar provides a terrific look at why we love to play RIFT and why it’s still fun, more than six years after launch!

1) Porticulums

Let’s start off with something that most players are already so used to, that they barely even recognize it as a feature anymore. It was not since I tried some other MMORPGs at the end of last year that I was reminded of this awesome network of porticulums all over Telara.

Porticulums are portals that you can find in almost every major quest hub and city. They unlock when you enter the area they are in and you can access any other porticulums you have unlocked for in-game currency to instantly port yourself there. With a Brevanic Portal Generator or as a Patron you can even access the porticulum network remotely from wherever you are! Running 10 minutes to another hub just to return to the previous hub by foot? Not in Telara!

2) The Soul System

You rolled a backstabbing assassin, leveled him, learned to craft, got some nice gear and then want to try another playstyle but already get goosebumps thinking about leveling again and lose all your progress?

DO NOT WORRY! Rift’s unique soul system offers you tons of options to play your character the way you like. Rift comes with 4 free callings (Mage, Rogue, Warrior, Cleric) that have 10 different souls each (7 free, 3 optional premium souls), as well as the premium Primalist calling that comes with 6 different souls, with more to be added this summer (free to all who own the Primalist pack).

You can combine 3 souls of your calling to build a role and then spend your soul points in them; you gather these while leveling. From level 61-65, you get additional mastery abilities and from level 66 onwards you get legendary points to improve some of your core abilities.

You can unlock up to 40 role slots and can almost instantly switch between them when you are not in battle! Melee DPS or ranged? Maybe tank & spank or heal the raid? Build what you like and experiment what suits your playstyle best!

3) Mentoring & SidekickingYou want to play with your friends, but they are all at max level already?

Do not worry! With mentoring and sidekicking, Rift makes playing together not only possible but also rewarding!

Mentoring down to the level of a group member temporarily decreases your level and stats, while still resulting rewards for your actual level when mentored to the appropriate level of the content. That means if you are level 70 and do a zone event with a level 25 friend while mentored to the same level, you can earn tokens and other rewards that are useful for level 70!

Sidekicking works the other way round; your level 25 friend can sidekick and gets boosted the level of the content, while still receiving rewards appropriate for level 25! Playing together has never been easier or more enjoyable!

4) Instant AdventuresYou don’t want to follow the quest line and instead hop right into the action?

At level 10 you unlock Instant Adventures, a never ending series of short quests that reward XP, currency and gear within a raid group of up to 20 players. This system also takes advantage of the Mentoring & Sidekicking features, meaning you will play together with players of all levels, which are all adjusted to the appropriate level for the zone you are in. There are normal instant adventures that are good for leveling, intrepid adventures that have more challenge but also better rewards, and sometimes seasonal celebration adventures.

At level 65 you can also enter the planes by joining Planar Assault Adventures and fight back the forces of the enemy.

5) Artifacts

You are the kind of person that needs to fill up every sticker album they get? Collecting post stamps IRL?

CAUTION! Do not get hooked on shinies! The artifact system, brought to us by the pure evil of Dev DeadSimon, gives you the option to collect little shinies all over Telara and beyond.

There are currently around 1,600 sets of artifacts and probably, each requiring multiple common to relic artifacts to complete. Probably there are over 20,000 different artifacts overall and there are even multiple types of them! While the normal ones are just hidden in the world, there are also twisted ones that require a special ability to see them, unstable artifacts that you can only aquire during special zone events and poisoned, burning and nightmare artifacts that hurt you while you are hunting for them. If you choose to start this journey, make sure to prepare yourself!

6) Puzzles

Speaking of DeadSimon, he also created challenging puzzles in RIFT. Tons of them. They get more and more challenging; some of them might cause keyboard damage! If you are really into puzzles you might become a true Callweddi Citizen (hidden city for puzzle masters and artifact hunters) and prove yourself in the puzzle dungeon “Tok’s Proving Grounds”, where you can earn some of the most stunning appearance armor in the game. Believe me, you will not be disappointed!

7) Dimensions

You are creative and want to build something yourself? Dimensions will be your new passion!

Rift’s version of instanced housing allows you to obtain certain plots of Telara and build in them whatever you desire. And when I say whatever you like, I mean WHATEVER YOU LIKE. From mystic forests, skyscrapers and castles up to recreating scenes from movies or books, anything is possible! In your dimensions you can place up to thousands of dimension items, which you can scale, turn, move and morph however you feel like!

8) Wardrobe

Let’s be honest: one of the most important things in MMOs is to look BADASS! In Rift, the appearance of every item you collect will be saved for your wardrobe collection for all your characters on the EU or NA cluster. In the wardrobe menu (“c” -> wardrobe) you can mix and match multiple wardrobe sets together and use the color options in addition to create your unique character appearance! There are thousands of skins waiting for you to unlock them, from quests, dungeons, raids, pvp or the RIFT store.

9) The CommunityWhile this is of course very subjective, I have never met a more helpful and welcoming MMORPG community than you’ll find in RIFT! It’s easy to meet new people and make friends, as most of RIFT’s content encourages you to work together with other people to achieve your goals. If you have questions, you can be sure to get answers and if you need help someone will show up to assist. If you enjoy a (mostly) mature and warm community, you will for sure find a place in ours!

10) It’s FREE! (up to level 65)If the previous points haven’t fully convinced you, keep in mind instead of reading this you could already be downloading the game and just try it out for FREE! All content from level 1 to 65 is completely free, so start your journey in Mathosia, to Brevane and Dusken and enter the Plane of Water! Try all the systems I described here and I am sure you will find even more awesome content you enjoy that is not even listed here!